Power play for new guv

With a new Illinois governor, Commonwealth Edison Co., Peoples Gas and other big utilities stand to lose more juice.

Gov. Pat Quinn, a longtime utility foe, has taken office at a time when ComEd and Peoples Gas are preparing to seek rate hikes. The governor will soon name a new chairman of the Illinois Commerce Commission, the state agency that regulates utilities. Observers predict Mr. Quinn's choice will be pro-consumer  perhaps Martin Cohen, who fought a series of battles with ComEd in the 1990s as head of the Citizens Utility Board, which Mr. Quinn helped found.

It's a sudden reversal of fortune for utilities like ComEd, which until late last year could count on supporters such as recently retired Senate President Emil Jones to protect its interests in Springfield. Now they have no reliable allies among the state's top political leaders.

"I think at this time it's important to have a commerce commission that will be fighting for the consumer's interest," Mr. Quinn says. In the 1980s, he co-founded CUB, a consumer advocacy group that has opposed utilities on almost everything they have tried to do.

With four of the five ICC members split along pro-consumer and utility-friendly lines, Chairman Charles Box frequently casts the deciding vote on contentious matters like rate hikes and often sides with utilities. But his reappointment is considered unlikely: Mr. Quinn was a harsh critic of the ICC under Mr. Box's leadership the past three years.

The new governor, who took over last month following the impeachment of Rod Blagojevich, said he plans to talk to Mr. Box about another term, but other candidates will be considered. Mr. Box's term expired last month, but he will remain in the post until an appointment is made.

"I'll make a decision pretty quickly," Mr. Quinn says.

As lieutenant governor, Mr. Quinn excoriated the Box-led commission for approving a utility-backed auction process for setting power prices after a decade-long freeze on electric rates expired at the end of 2006. As a result, ComEd increased its rates more than 20%.

"I think a new day has dawned," says Bob Gallo, senior state director of AARP Illinois, a frequent critic of the ICC. Mr. Box, a former mayor of Rockford, didn't return calls for comment.

DIMINISHING CLOUT

Another possible appointee to the ICC post, observers speculate, is Susan Hedman, lead environmental and energy counsel for Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan.

Mr. Box's departure would be another blow to the political clout of ComEd and other utilities. Mr. Jones, who retired last month, was a staunch ComEd supporter, shielding it from numerous legislative assaults.

The setbacks leave the utilities, traditionally consummate political insiders, in the unaccustomed position of seeking new friends in high places. That won't stop them from asking for higher rates. Peoples Gas, Chicago's natural-gas utility, is expected to file for an increase as soon as this week, just a year after obtaining one that raised average bills 5%.

ComEd says it will ask for higher rates again later this year, after securing ICC approval in September for a hike that raised bills 6%, on average.

"The selection of ICC chairman falls within the discretion of the governor," ComEd said in an e-mailed statement. Says a Peoples spokesman, "I wouldn't say we're concerned. Pat Quinn is the governor now. I'm sure he's taking a much broader viewpoint of things" than when he was lieutenant governor or a consumer advocate.